Monthly Archives: February 2012

Joining in with the Lenten theme of prayer, our choir will be singing anthems each week that are themselves prayers.

We began on February 26 with a contemporary arrangement of the well-known Prayer of Saint Francis. This week, on March 4, we sing a motet, Lord, Let My Complaint Come Before Thee by the early seventeenth-century English composer Adrian Batten.

The anthem for March 11 is the Agnus Dei (Lamb of God, Have Mercy Upon Us) and Dona nobis pacem (Grant Us Peace) from Mozart’s Missa Brevis in F Major.

On March 18 we will sing Prayer to Jesus by the Victorian British composer George Oldroyd.… Continue

During the Season of Lent we invite you into a time of centering prayer. We hope you will find a time to be silent and attune your ears to God, meditating on words from our Christian tradition.
This week we invite you to pray with the Christian mystic, Hildegard of Bingen.
Walk through the valley of humility and know peace. Lose your titanic, hard-to-satisfy ego. A greedy self-esteem is just a steep mountain you’ll find dangerous to climb. It’s also tricky (if not impossible) to come down from such heights, and anyhow the summit is too small for community. Focus on Love’s splendid garden instead. Gather flowers of humility and simplicity of soul. Study God’s patience. Keep your eyes open. Decide to seek the all-powerful God with sincerity of mind.
Hildegard of Bingen

Shrove Tuesday Pancake Supper - Tuesday, February 21 5-6:30 pm in the Miller Gathering Hall. Pancakes -- plain, banana, chocolate chip and apple -- will be served, along with meat and meatless sausages. The cost for the meal is $4 per person or $15 per family.
Ash Wednesday service - Wednesday, February 22nd 6:45 pm. The ervice will begin with prayer, song, and scripture readings. The choir will sing, a time of silence will be observed, and the service will conclude with the imposition of ashes. We hope you will make time to mark the beginning of this season of penitence as we journey to the cross.
Wednesday evenings services during Lent 6:30-7pm - Bryce Wiebe will lead a time of prayer, song, and silence in the sanctuary

Though First Presbyterian Church has just completed our third year of service with Columbus House’s “Abraham’s Tent,” it wasn’t until recently that I decided to recall the passage from the Old Testament from which the program’s name comes. Genesis 18 presents the story:

As Abraham sat at the entrance of his tent in the heat of the day, he looked up and saw three men standing near him…He ran from the tent entrance to meet them…and he said, ‘let a little water be brought, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves…Let me bring a little bread, that you may refresh yourselves’…and he stood by them under the tree while they ate.

After enduring decades of civil war with the Sudanese government, South Sudan finally declared independence and officially became the United Nations’ newest member-state in July, 2011. Yet the nightmares of violence and poverty are far from over for its people. Upon gaining independence, it also became one of the world’s poorest countries. Moreover, as of mid-January, ethnic clashes have already caused the displacement of 120,000 people. Clearly the country is in need of assistance of all sorts, more immediately humanitarian and peacekeeping operations but also economic development programs and programs that promote conflict resolution and reconciliation in the longer term.

Nancy and Shelvis Smith-Mather, both ministers from the Presbytery of Greater Atlanta, are currently in South Sudan working hard on improving the prospects of sustainable peace in the country. … Continue